The Monmouth-Roseville Titans boys basketball team was back in action on Wednesday night, for a Valentines Day showdown with a team that Monmouth-Roseville is very familiar with in the Macomb Bombers. In a tale of two halves for the Titans, it would be the host team Macomb coming away with the 53-35 victory.
It was a back and forth start to the game, as both teams traded blows in the first quarter. Jake Steele took the lid off the scoring with a 3 ball to start the scoring. Nico Avendano scored 4 early points for the Titans to help them take a small early lead. Bombers senior Dion Doyle brought the early response for Macomb, scoring the first 8 out of 10 points for Macomb. Leading 12-10 after a three pointer from senior Ayden Almaguer, the Titans would add on to their lead with a strong take to the basket by Jake Steele. After a nice response from the Bombers however to cut the lead down to three, Drew Watson would beat the buzzer for Macomb, sending the game to the end of the first with the score knotted up at 16-16. A much different pace of play set the tone for the second quarter after a 16-16 showing in the first. Doyle and Almaguer traded early jumpers to start the quarter, while sophomore Cee Sarcomo poured in 5 points to help the Titans. An Ian Case layup and Drew Watson three would be the response for Macomb, and another basket for the Bombers near the end of the quarter would send the game to halftime, with Macomb leading 25-23.
Out of the halftime break, Dion Doyle and Darrion Smith traded 2 pointers before Sarcomo put in a reverse layup to cut the lead to 29-27 in favor of Macomb. After that exchange however, the Bombers would go on a 10 point run highlighted by a Drew Watson 3, push the Macomb lead to 39-27 going into the final quarter of play. In the opening of the 4th quarter, Ayden Almaguer ended the long Bombers run, with a nice take to the basket, and after Darrion Smith knocked down a corner 3, the Titans burned a quick timeout with 5 minutes to play after cutting the Bombers lead back down to single digits. Out of the timeout, Macomb put together the game winning run, with several takeaways and dunks from senior Dion Doyle, giving the Bombers a 53-35 win.
In the stat book for the Titans Darrion Smith led the way with 8 points, Ayden Almaguer and Cee Sarcomo both poured in 7, Jake Steele scored 5 Nico Avendano added in 4, while Ivan Godina and Dame Thioubou both scored 2. The loss for the Titans drops their overall record to 14-16, and they will have one more regular season matchup this Friday night before regionals begin next week, when they travel north to take on TRAC-West rival Orion.
